[Interview] Keeping it Simple in the New Year with Lauren White
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Over half of the population sets health-related resolutions, but after just 1 week, 23% quit and after 1 month, over 64% of those people have quit on their goals.
As we head into a new year, it's vital that you understand how to not be part of these statistics, bur instead, have a PLAN to follow through on your resolutions and actually make them your reality!
In this episode, Lauren White, host of The Intentional Edit Podcast, and I discuss all of this. Lauren is a mom and former teacher turned professional home organizer who is passionate about being organized, efficient, and helping families find simplicity. Her mission is to help busy, overwhelmed moms find solutions that bring simplicity to their home and life, which result in less stress and more time spent doing favorite activities with their most cherished friends and family.
Mentioned in this episode:
Episode 137 | Creating a Plan for Your 2023 Health Goals as a Mom
Connect with Lauren:
IG: @intentionaledit
Are you ready to go from overwhelmed and stuck to disciplined and consistent in your journey?
Join Starting Point School and let's get you on track to your healthiest life!
FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Did you know that by February 64% of people that set resolutions for the new year have failed or stopped or quit on their resolutions? 64% of people that set out with resolutions have stopped, have given up. I do not want you to be a part of that number. I want you to be part of the 36% that is still going.
And so today I'm bringing to you a conversation I had with my friend Lauren White. She's the host of the Intentional Edit Podcast, and her and I have very similar approaches in the areas that we work in. You may have heard Lauren on the podcast before, but if you're not familiar with her, Lauren's a mom.
She's a former teacher, and now what she does is she's also a professional home home organizer, so she helps you organize your home, declutter, and create. In habits in your life, in your day-to-day life within your home, that will help you be more productive and feel less stressed. I told her today, I said, you know what you do is you help people get their life [00:01:00] together,
And so that's what she does, and today we have an awesome, awesome conversation about how you can go into the new year in a way that's sustainable, what it means to be intentional with your goals. We talk about how to make a plan and why it's important and what that can look like for you going into the new year, how goals and different categories of your life.
Intertwine and impact each other. We talk about all of this today, so let's go listen in.
Hey mama. Welcome to the Tough Love Mom podcast. I know you're here because you're ready to get consistent and finally lose that weight, and you're not afraid of a little tough love. You know what to do to lose weight, but following through on those things feels impossible. You wish you could just feel like your strong, confident self again and want to be a good example for your little ones, but you get thrown off by mom guilt and the unpredictability of motherhood.
It's frustrating. Taking on your [00:02:00] journey. Postpartum is hard, but it's not impossible. Hey, I'm Liz, and I've been where you are. I gained a lot of weight in my pregnancies, 90 pounds and then 60 pounds. I needed to lose that weight to take control of my health, and honestly just wanted to feel like myself again with the sustainable approach to weight loss.
Simple consistency in working on my mindset. I lost it all in just over a year, both times, and I'm here to help you do the same. I believe that we have an ingrained ability to figure out what we need to do, make it happen, and do it in a way that AWS the world. If you're ready to stop falling off the wagon, create solid, routine and healthy habits, and finally feel your best inside and out, all while enjoying Dino nuggets on your salad.
You are in the right place. We're about to transform your journey, my friend. Get pumped up. It is tough. Love time.
So I know you have some statistics about the new year and revolutions and how everyone, everyone kind of [00:03:00] ends up, uh, down the road. So why don't you share those just to take our conversation off around this whole topic of basically following through and consistency and just, just making what you want to happen in your life happen.
So I did a little research on New Year's resolutions because it's such a hot topic this time of year, and what I found is the largest demographic to set New Year's resolutions is the young adults ages 18 to 39 and 59% of people in those age groups in that age group are actually setting some type of resolution.
And the majority of New Year's resolutions are set around something in the health and wellness categories. There's a couple that can vary, whether it's nutrition or working out, or a healthier lifestyle in general, or things [00:04:00] within your home or family. But really, health and wellness is the top three, and it's considerably higher than any of the other resolutions.
But the thing that is concerning to me when I look at these statistics is 23% of people quit their resolution before the first week of the year is even over. And something else that is crazy is only 36% of people are still going and still successful at one month. Man, . I didn't realize the I, I knew, I knew the generic like pattern of those statistics because I feel like everyone kind of knows them.
But to actually hear the numbers is I'm writing. I was writing them down while you were talking. Cause I was like, that's nuts. And that's also that age demographic is us. It's everyone listening. And obviously the new year, it's [00:05:00] like a fresh start. When it comes to your health, when it comes to your habits, whether it's habits within your home, habits within your, your journey, your physical journey, you know, it's always this opportunity to go, okay, I'm ready for a fresh start.
so many people are, you said 23% quit by the first week, which just, I think my eyes like bugged outta my head when I heard that. Cause that's, that's a, that's a fourth of people. That's a fourth of millions of people probably that set resolutions. Um, and for, well, less than half of them to still be going simply 30 days later.
Like 30 days is not that long. It's a short, short amount of time for, it's not even 10% of the year for them to be the only ones still going at one month later. It was really sad. Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with you, and I think I kind of said it in a nice way by saying only 36% are still [00:06:00] successful because when you flip that around, that means 64% of people have failed or have quit or don't have the tools that they need to stick to this.
And really, you and I have jobs because we are able to coach people and walk them through the mindset that they need to be successful with habits and how to set up these habits for success in different topics because we are experts in different areas, but. , you have to zone in and make a plan in order to have success.
Just stating something and saying, this is my New Year's resolution. We'll put you in the category of the 23% that don't even make it through the first week. So let's talk a little bit about that because I know we have a lot of listeners that w wanna be successful, they have goals for themselves, and what are you thinking [00:07:00] would be the key things to really help our clients and listeners have success when they wanna make a change?
Well, you said it already. It's important to make a plan and. I think that can be really intimidating for people because it's like, okay, well I'm not an expert in this field. I don't know how to make workouts for myself. I don't know how to , like, I don't know everything about organizing. I'm not gonna become this guru in a month.
So it can become really intimidating to here, I need to make a plan. Right. I don't know. At least that's my perspective. I feel like moms especially can have that limiting belief come on them real quick because it's, it's like, well, where do I even start with making a plan? And I think it's best, at least what I, what I like to teach.
I just actually recorded an episode about this, but. when it comes to making plans for your goals, whether it's your health goals or any other habits that you wanna build [00:08:00] in, you have to start with this big overarching goal. This like overarching picture for how do I want to be showing up? What do I wanna feel is there, is there a specific tangible goal I wanna work towards?
And smart goals I think are great. I think they have their place. But when you're looking at the next year and making your resolutions, which can also be deemed goals, you wanna go, okay, why do I want this? And is there like, is there a purpose behind what I'm saying I want to achieve? Or am I just saying this cause I think I'm supposed to?
Because when you can create that overarching theme for the year, , it's so much easier to come up with a plan. It's so much easier to say, okay, this is what consistent will look like for me based on what I want to accomplish next year. And I think it's great when people have tangible goals, but I don't think when you're making a plan for the next year that every single goal you [00:09:00] set, every single plan that you make needs to be this drawn out, you know, smart.
I forget what it stands for. Exactly. Um, right. Smart. Measurable. Smart. What's the first one? What's the s s is smart or, yeah, you're . Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Realistic. Time. Timely. Specific. Specific. That's specific. Oh, S is specific, yes. Yeah. And like parts of those are really good, but, um, that first part I always teach with making a plan is like, what?
uniquely do you want to be doing next year? Like for me, I'm a couple years out postpartum, so you know, I'm not trying to lose weight anymore because I'm out of good weight for my body. Like I don't need to lose any weight. But I still wanna make progress towards something. I still wanna challenge myself.
I still want to grow and so I have this overarching goal next year to have an optimal balance of strength and [00:10:00] endurance. So basically like be the strongest I've ever been as a mom because I have room to grow in that area. Um, but also be able to go out and run six miles if I want to. Cuz mentally that's really therapeutic for me.
But I also don't have that endurance space right now. So, you know, having a balance of those two where I'm really strong, but I have a good endurance level is like my theme for the year. That's like my overarching goal. It's not smart goal, but knowing that everything I do, every choice I'm making day-to-day.
will affect that. And if I am at that point, you know, partway through the year, like I wanna be, you know, sometime in the summer or the fall helps guide those decisions. And I think when you can go into the year, not only with the mindset, but with something like that, that you're aiming towards, um, you know, it makes you not fall into that 30 what, 64% you said that are done with the resolutions by month one by [00:11:00] February.
Right. And I think what stuck out to me when you were explaining your goal for the year is you're, you were very realistic. You didn't set something that was impossible to attain. It might be a stretch at some point, but it was realistic and a goal should push you. And we wouldn't be setting goals for ourselves if.
these things came easy to us because they would already be happening. So if you're listening to this and you are wanting to make a change and needing to set a goal, it, we just happen to be having this conversation. And it fits into the new Year's when people are making resolutions and when that is a common thing happening.
But anytime in your life you recognize that you need to make a change and you want something more, then you can use the tools and the things that we're talking about today. And do make sure that what you're setting yourself up for [00:12:00] is real realistic. And if you find that it's not, you can always make adjustments, but set yourself up.
The right expectations from the beginning because I think that's when so many people end up quitting. They don't have a good plan and or they don't really have a thorough plan in place and then instead of continuing on when they do fail or they make a mistake or they fall off a little bit, it's easier just to quit than it is to get back on.
And I think that's where you really talk a lot about consistency. And it's okay if you make a mistake. We all have things that happen to us that might interrupt the process that we thought was gonna happen. But if you have a good plan or even invested in a good program, then you can catch up and you can get right back on where you fell off.
Yeah, absolutely. And you said real. . I think it's also [00:13:00] important that whatever goals you're setting for next year or resolutions, whatever you wanna call 'em, there are things you actually want. Like you're excited about that. Like, I'm not gonna train for a marathon next year cause it doesn't excite me right now.
I have no desire to do a marathon . I probably could. It probably is realistic, um, you know, later in the year. But like, it doesn't entice me. I don't wanna do that. And the same thing with like routines in my home. I wanna get to the point where we're in, like we're really struggling right now with a schedule cause we just moved.
So that's something that early in the year I'm going to prioritize and try to build habits around, try to build routines around for my family because we're kind of struggling in that area right now in having just a predictable routine , which my little toddlers thrive on and me too. But we just don't have that right now.
Um, so it's important to know like what's realistic. , what do you actually want? Like what would excite you goal-wise [00:14:00] and what's needed? Because sometimes you do have to set a goal that's like necessary, um, but it will help benefit other areas of your life as well. So even if it's not super exciting, it's like, yeah, but this is gonna take a big load off my shoulders.
Like I'm sitting in a room right now that still has some box boxes that need to go. I need to go through 'em. And so that's gonna be one of my goals next year, is getting through some of our storage boxes after this move. And it's one of those things that it's not super necessary, but I know it will lighten that mental load as well.
It's needed, you know. Well, and what you've said is so important because your goal is focused around fitness and strength and pushing you to the next phase in this journey for you. You are not gonna have success with that goal unless you do a couple of things to set yourself up for success. And one of those is getting in better routines and setting up better routines [00:15:00] and structure for your day and with your kids so that you can have success with that fitness goal.
And I think sometimes we just zone in on that one thing and forget that there's other things that have to fall into place to be successful with the goals that we're setting or the desires that, that we have to make these changes and to really get what we want. Oh yeah, that's so true. You ha it's a, you can't compartmentalize your goals
You can't be like, all right, these are my business goals and my work goals, and these are my family goals and these are my financial goals and these are my fitness goals. Like you have. , you can come up with separate ones in each category. Yes. Like you should, you should categorize them. But there's a difference between like categorizing and compartmentalizing because categorize 'em, but then figure out how they weave together and how they're gonna impact each other.
And when in the year you can focus on which, like, which thing you should you focus on [00:16:00] first. It's not gonna be great for you to, let's see, if you've got like financial goals, let's say I'm getting outta debt, it's not gonna be great for you to start with that before addressing some nutrition habits that you have around constantly eating out.
It's like, hey, let's address that like for a couple weeks to start off the year and then start working towards that financial goal. Cuz you gotta, you know, you gotta order 'em in the right and that's probably not the like best example, but you get, you get the drift. It's like put them in the right order so you're not.
right? Just saying, I'm gonna do this and I'll also do this, and then I'm gonna do this randomly. You're not compartmentalize and you're like weaving everything together. And that's where you're, it's so important to have a plan or a program or a mentor, some will, something that you can follow along with that will help you achieve these goals.
And then also their ac, the accountability piece is huge as well. Who are [00:17:00] you going to be accountable to and where are you charting the progress or keeping track of it to see if you are on track? Yeah. It's so important. So when it comes to, when it comes to like routines and. Schedules and just like processes within your home.
I feel like that's the best phrase for what you do because , I know for me, when I have those in place, everything else is so much easier. Like working out for me is so much easier. Cookie meals is so much easier. So let's say the listener right now is only focused on resolutions around their health, which is fine.
Like if you're only setting resolutions around your health, great. But you have to address other areas of your life too. So if you've ever seen people struggle with certain types of goals or falling off, maybe they fall into the 64% that's fallen off by one month. And is there like a correlation between [00:18:00] that happening and not having systems within your home kind of nailed down before taking on other.
kind of in the sense of like, okay, we're not weaving things together very well. We're kind of com compartmentalizing our goals. So does that, like, is there a connection between that, between falling off, you know, by February with whatever resolutions you've set, um, and anything that might be like off within your home, any SY systems or processes that are just like not in place yet?
Do you know what I mean? So I, I can tell you when I was going into houses frequently as a professional home organizer, a lot of my clients that I would work with, sometimes I would be hired to go into the house. The people weren't even there. I would organize it and leave. Sometimes the people were very hands-on and wanted to go through everything with me and do the process from decluttering to organizing.
100% they were, we worked alongside each other. [00:19:00] And when you work alongside someone for that many hours, you do, you have a lot of great conversations and you get to know each other. And almost all of those people at some point mention a other desires just casually like wanting to get in shape or when they had time to work out, or it, they used to be an organized person, so looking back and, and something happened where the habits that they have are not the same as what they used to.
If they feel like they were better at something before or they never were in a, in this place that they want to be. And it, it could be around fitness, it could be around. Having dinners together as a family or more intentional time with their kids, they're not being so stressed out at home. And all of these things really go hand in hand.
If you have a cluttered environment and you ha you're surrounded by too much stuff, [00:20:00] you feel stressed out, you're less likely to work out, you're less motivated to have that healthy dinner or to make food at home instead of go grab something to go. So all of these things I see can hinder you with having success even if your goals aren't this the like actually in the home organization category.
Getting things organized or getting your systems, getting your routines in place, figuring out what those look like, are going to have, going to help you have success with goals in fitness. And overall, if you want to change your diet or eat healthier foods, you um, like I was just talking to someone who said they wanna make sure that their family has a variety of four vegetables every single day in 2023.
So if you don't have a plan and you're not constantly getting those groceries from the grocery store, you're [00:21:00] not gonna have success at that if you are not in the process or in the practice of going to the grocery store and doing all those things. If your goals are around finances, like you mentioned a few minutes ago, if you want to save money or put more money in savings in the upcoming year, if you are stressed out and tired all the time and don't have a plan around, Eating at home and you're spending a lot of money going out to eat, then you're not going to be able to save money from that.
Just cutting back one meal for a family of four a week could allow you to put 50 to a hundred dollars in savings each week. Like when you break it down like that, then you can really change one habit and you have to have a plan around changing that one habit. How are you going to have success with that?
And that is like the snowball effect where then your other things can fall into place. [00:22:00] Yeah. It's so crazy how like that mental energy will get spent on a thousand other things when there's clutter or when there's no organization, whether it's like visual organization or like mental organization, how much mental energy, all of that takes up and takes away from your ability to pour into habits that you do wanna have like.
I literally just walked through this cuz we just moved two months ago across the country and our gosh, our moving truck got here a couple weeks later. So we got kind of settled. Their house was super empty and then it comes all our stuff. And I was like, all right, the next week is focused on setting this house up.
And I remember we'd like FaceTimed family or we'd had like a babysitter over and people are like, wow, you just moved in. It's so organized. And I was like, yeah, because I can't function when there's boxes everywhere. Like why would I wanna keep them around? Why don't I just unpack them and feel settled?
[00:23:00] And it's crazy because it took about a month to feel settled physically, like in our, in the context of our home with like furniture in place and things hung on the wall and all of that. But also settled in our routine. But once we were, I literally went from, cause I pulled back a lot with working out consistently when we were moving cuz it was very physical, um, and.
just again, that mental capacity wasn't there. But I went from like three workouts a week, literally once we got like moved in and settled to five. Cuz I was like, okay you, I can get back on this train that I'm used to back into my normal routine. Normal for the most part. But um, , it's just crazy how that mental energy will get spent on other things that we don't even realize are thrown off.
Whether it's just having clutter. Like I have some clutter on my desk right now and literally before I sit down to work I have to straighten it up and sometimes put it to the side so I don't even see it cuz it just distracts you and takes away that focus that you can have. And we don't [00:24:00] think about that.
We don't ever think about it and you are like, when you're explaining your house in the move and it was like, this is affecting how much you're working out. It is affecting how much work you can get done. It's just so many different things. All because your house isn't. unpacked. So you made a dedicated plan to get it done.
Mm-hmm. Take this week, get everything set up, and then once it was done, it was like, I'm sure you felt like you could breathe again. Yes. . And you were so much lighter. Yeah. And what blew my mind was people constantly saying, wow, you unpacked so fast. And I was like, why would no one else do the same thing?
Because it's going to throw you off. And I think that's kind of a roadblock that we all face. And maybe that's why 64% of people by February have fallen off is because it's this. It's this like societal mindset that we all are. I mean, if you're in the place where you're like, no, I wanna follow through, I wanna be consistent, I wanna get organized, I wanna be [00:25:00] in a routine, I want to, you know, get my health goals attained.
Finally, you're swimming upstream because a lot of society swims downstream with all of this. They just go with the flow of everyone else. And so, you know, not too, Give you an ex, the listener, an excuse to all of that. But like, I was shocked every time I heard someone say, while you unpack so fast. And I was like, yeah, we did.
Because it was affecting our, it was affecting my ability to be a great mom. It was affecting, you know, as best I can be. It was affecting everything. And we just have to recognize that, um, not necessarily just like physical clutter or being in a good schedule or any, but you just have to realize, okay, like it's not the norm.
Clearly, statistically, it's not the norm to still be consistent in February and March and April with the goals I set back in December for next year. It's not the norm, [00:26:00] but you know, if 36% of people in February still working on the resolutions and they haven't quit yet, someone's figured it out.
Someone's got that process down. Um, and it obviously is doable. So, you know, let's, let's bump that number up a little bit. , right? Exactly. We wanna help you have success and not be a part of the 64% that has already quit . Yeah. Gosh, 64. Yes. That's gonna stick with me. Right. One thing that I was reminded of when you were talking is so many families or moms will say, well, you, there's, it's, I think it's probably 50 50 ki when they have elementary age kids.
They're like, I either can't wait for summer. And the freedom and the flexibility around not having all these schedules, or they're, they're dreading that and they like the structure of the school year. But one thing when I'm working with clients that comes up over and [00:27:00] over again is even the ones that love the freedom and flexibility and the kind of like, relax in nature that can happen.
Happen in the summer is when school is in session again, and the routines are happening. So many, like more often than not say, I'm so thankful to be back in this routine. It's so nice to have some structure again. And they're, to have success with the, our daily routines or the habits that we have or getting dinner on the table or getting a daily workout in, there does have to be structure and routine around that.
Or you, you won't get it done. Absolutely, absolutely. And even, um, I work a lot with moms who are in a young, in the younger years, um, than like elementary age. And I tend to find. There. I mean I'm still kind [00:28:00] of in the phase slightly, but your routine's not as predictable. But there's still ways you can make it predictable by saying, okay, I'm only gonna focus on these couple things in these next couple months and nothing else.
Like, I'm not going to try to spread my mental energy too thin. I'm not gonna try to spread myself too thin and try to take on a million things, but I can do just a couple, I can, you know, just take on this one habit and then maybe another after that. And then maybe another after that. And what I've found, um, cuz obviously we work in different spaces, you know, more so ho home organization and processes versus health and fitness.
I have found that in this kind of comes back to like com categorizing your goals. I can work on a habit in my health journey alongside a habit. For my home. Whether it's, you know, get, and sometimes they coincide, like getting dinners on the table, grocery shopping, meal planning, all of that stuff. Those kind of, those kind of crossover, that's where their, that mesh is.[00:29:00]
Um, but I found when it's like early on when I had a babies, I was working up to more consistent exercise. That was like the first thing I started with after I had kids. And while I was doing that, something I started to add in was cleaning. Cause I'm just, I told you this last time we talked. I am not good at cleaning
Like, it's something that I have to be super intentional about. I have to schedule it, I have to like, or I just won't do it. Cuz it's one of those things where I'm like, ah, I don't feel like it, it can wait till next week. , I shouldn't even say that, right? It's the TOEFL of mom. But like, I have those moments and it's usually around cleaning, but I had to figure out.
I can, I can work on this habit with my health, but also at the same time add in this habit with cleaning and getting the floors cleaned or vacuuming, whatnot. Like I can do these at the same time because they're in different categories. It doesn't feel as stressful or overwhelming. I'm not trying to put all my energy into my health journey, [00:30:00] but I'm also not trying to put all my energy into just my home and neglecting myself.
It's like, Hey, I'm showing up in the role of homemaker and wife and mom. Like for me, for myself. I'm showing up in both of those areas in a balanced way. And I think it's so easy when we have resolutions around one, one area to put all of our energy into that and then let everything else fall off, fall off the wagon.
And you know, that's stressful too. So, you know, focusing on one thing at a time when you categorize your goals or come up with a few in each area, you can kind of pair them together or. Even if they're not similar, do 'em at the same time. So it, it kind of plays off each other. It's like, wow, I'm motivated.
I feel more energetic because I'm working out and now I have this time and energy to also like vacuum twice a week instead of never . So, yes. Um, it's so cool that you can do that and I [00:31:00] think we overlook that cuz it seems so simple. And so people are like, oh, why would I take that approach when I could just go all in?
Well, I would take that approach. I would suggest that approach a hundred times out of a hundred because it's sustainable. Like it's what will actually create change in your life in all areas. For sure. Yeah. I, I totally agree. I know one habit that I have is, Not to go to bed with the kitchen counters cluttered or like dirty dishes in the sink or, or on the counters.
That's a good one. And this is something that I have done for years and years. Is it perfect? 365 days a year? No. There are, maybe I have a cold, right? Or something gets in the way. And occasionally that doesn't happen. And even though I know that with just a few minutes of time in the morning, I can get that back to a [00:32:00] clean sink, an empty sink and clean counters, it's still irritates me when I wake up and it's not clean or there is stuff there.
And because it, it's not supposed to be there. And I like it to be clean and virtually clutter free. But one if, if you're tired at night and you're exhausted and you can't get to the dishes, then. doing those before you go to bed. That's not the answer. When can you do the dishes throughout the day? When do you have that time that is available to you?
And I suggest all the time with my clients, if you are cooking dinner, you have time when you are cooking the meal to put to rinse dishes and put them in the dishwasher. And if you can have a clean sink before you even sit down to eat or give the, pass the plates out to your kids to eat, then it only takes you two or three minutes to finish the rest of the dishes when everyone's done.
And if your kids are old enough, they can put their own dishes in the dishwasher [00:33:00] or someone can have that as a chore. And then you have a child doing that. But there's not one answer. It doesn't have to be the last thing you do before you go to to bed is put the dishes in. It doesn't have to be that they're done during dinner.
It doesn't have to be. This is something you do during nap time. It's. When you are going to be successful with a goal, it's because you are using, you've created a system, or you're following a plan that works for your family and the stage of life and the phase of whatever is happening right now. And then you can make changes if you have toddlers and all of a sudden you introduce a baby into the mix, things are changing, your routines are changing.
There are significant things that are changing in your home. And if you are wanting to get out and go for a walk every day, , it might have to take place at a different time now and it might not even take place at the same [00:34:00] time every single day. So give yourself a little leniency. There has to be a little flexibility there, but make sure that you still have accountability to and can follow through with this plan.
And again, that's where I would go back to make sure you have a program that you're following. Like do you have a coach that you can reference or follow their program or something that they've created. Can you take a class? Can you do something so that you are not trying to just randomly make this goal happen because it you are gonna be part of that 64% that has quit by the end of January if you don't have some kind of plan or structure to follow.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the best example that I like to give is back before I had kids, I did triathlons a lot and. before I get into triathlons, I was just like, oh, I'm done with playing volleyball in college. I need to just start working out. Cuz over [00:35:00] Christmas I gained like 15 pounds and I was like, whoa, I'm not like feeling this way.
I need to like, I guess I need to stay active since not playing volleyball anymore. And so I just started doing random workouts on Pinterest. Random things I found on Google, like very random. Um, and it worked and I felt good. Like I felt better, but it wasn't very sustainable because of various reasons.
But when I got into triathlons a few months later, I was like, oh, well, you know, this is three disciplines. You gotta swim, you gotta ride a bike, and then you have to run. So considering that I don't know what I'm doing in these areas and I also don't wanna piecemeal it together, I started following training plans and lo behold, two years later, I was doing, instead of doing like a f a a triathlon that took one hour, um, I was doing an Ironman.
And it's simply because I was training in a way that was conducive to my goal. I was following a plan that was going to get me there, and [00:36:00] it took me two years to get to the point where my endurance from being someone who was like, I don't run, I'm not a runner to someone who ran a marathon after like 10 hours of exercise already.
I mean, it was, it's stuff like that that it takes a lot of time to build up, and it is a long process of following a plan that's sustainable, a plan that will create results, but that's the only way that you make actual change. That's the only way you transform, the way you're showing up, the way your journey feels, the way your life feels.
You really can't. Make that happen by just, Ooh, if I go like, organize that shelf on the pantry, I'll feel better. Okay. But it's gonna get like unorganized in a week. You know, , at least that's what happens in my house sometimes. If I don't have a schedule for cleaning and I don't follow through on that schedule, I'm gonna stop cleaning.
Simple as that. If I don't have a, you know, a plan for mastering habits in my. , they're never gonna get mastered, right? I'm never [00:37:00] gonna consistently meal plan dinners and cook dinners for my family. I'm never gonna consistently work out because I haven't thought about, okay, what time of day, how many days a week?
What is conducive to my life right now? Like you heard before, I had to change that in the season of our move, and then I was able to build back, like it will shift and change. And you just, I always talk about how you have to be responsive to everything going on in life versus reactive and like, you know, getting a couple weeks in to this new season, totally falling off and then being like, wow, what just happened?
Now I'm really frustrated and now I feel bad. And I feel like shame and guilt around where I'm at now because I didn't even realize it was happening. When you have a plan to follow, when you know where to start, when you have consistent follow through, and again, like you keep bringing up accountability along that journey.
Whether it's, and I like self-accountability. I think that's the best way to go of just saying, Hey, this is my plan and I'm doing it. Because at the [00:38:00] end of the day, you have to, you have to build that intrinsic motivation. You have to end up having self-motivation, um, or you really will never change. Tough love momum there
But you have to, you have to build that muscle. You really do. Um, but it's over time that that will happen. And you really can't do it without having a plan to follow, knowing where to start. And like, I hate this phrase cuz it's so cliche, but trusting the process, like it is a process. It will take time and you have to trust it.
And it's cliche because people say it all the time, but they say it all the time because it's true. Simple as that. That's why cliches are cliche. Cause they're actually true really though. So I guess I should say I'm more often . Yeah, . Right. So responsive. Over reactive. That's, I'm saying that again because I think that is so important and like responsive.
You could go in so many different directions with what that means. [00:39:00] Have flexibility with yourself. Not so much leniency that you can make excuses, but it's better to be responsive, make the changes that you need when things come up than to react negatively and in a way that makes you quit. Yeah, yeah.
Negative, frustrated, guilt. Like all these things that are so destructive that we don't wanna feel when you think ahead, when you plan ahead. . There's really no room for those to come up in your journey because you're like, oh, I already took this into account. And yes, things will come up, circumstances will happen that no one could have predicted.
Absolutely. Like that's life. That's motherhood, . But for the most part, having some sort of plan under your belt, having something in mind, having that overarching goal that we talked [00:40:00] about early on where you know, okay, this is like my big theme for the year. This is what I really want. This is why I want it, and this is how I'm going to make it happen month by month, week by week, day by day.
This is the order in which I'm going to attack these goals, and I'm not gonna try to do 'em all at once because that's how you fall off. That's how you become part of the 64%. And when you can approach things in that way, in that sustainable way, in the way that build builds consistency. You really, like I said, you really won't feel that shame and guilt when stuff comes up and you're not perfect.
I have so many moments of imperfection in my journey and I'm over here literally speaking into mom's lives and minds and consistency and discipline in their health journeys when I'm not perfect. But I'm okay with that because that's how our journeys are. But I, I'm not doing it com in a compromising way and there's no guilt coming up because I fought ahead.
Like we made chocolate chip cookies last night as a family. [00:41:00] Cause I thought it would be fun. And guess what? I ate some cookie dough and it's cuz I said, you know what? It would be so fun for my boys to make chocolate chip cookies tonight cause I never bake . And so we did that and it was like one of those core memories that we made.
And yes, I enjoyed chocolate chip cookie dough with them and I'm okay with it because it was like, you know, I'm not trying to be super disciplined in my nutrition right now. We made this decision to make chocolate chip cookies. I wanna have fun with my boys, so this is how we're gonna do it. No big deal.
Imperfect, but no guilt. And everything you're saying is kind of revolves around one of my favorite words. And that's being intentional. Yes. So such a good word. You're intentional with the goal setting. Intentional with the process. Intentional with the flexibility when it's needed. Mm-hmm. . And when you have good routines or some type of system set up in your home, that's when you can have the moment where you can make the chocolate [00:42:00] chip cookies and you can deviate from the plan because you have minutes built in for flexibility.
And then like I always say, you want, you get organized, you remove the clutter from your life, you create the systems that revolve around. The thing is that you want to be doing, because when you have good systems and routines set up, then all of a sudden you have time to do things that you actually want to be doing with the people that are most important to you.
Mm-hmm. , and you just perfectly explained how that works with your chocolate chip cookie fun night that you had last night, and they were so good. . Isn't it crazy how when you get more disciplined with different habits, you're like doing more, like on paper it would look like you're doing more, but it feels like you have more space in your life, isn't it?
You know what I'm talking about? Like, I know you did 75 hard and I did it [00:43:00] this, this past year, and um, it's like there's so many ha there's so many like tasks that you do each day reading an outdoor workout and other workout like. I did the live hard program, which like has other phases, which is like a cold shower in like 10 minutes of visualization.
It's all these like tasks that take time, but when I was, I'm never doing that cold shower one. Yeah, it's not fun. . Yeah, it's not fun. Never will be fun. Um, , but you're doing all these things, but I don't know if you experienced this, I can only speak for myself, but I felt like I had, I was a thousand times more productive and had way more time and space to do things even though I was like doing more, like 90 minutes of exercise a day is a lot of time, but I still felt like I had more time to get stuff done.
I don't Did you feel that at all? So it, I think this goes to when you have things that you have. To get done. And I, I do schedule audits [00:44:00] with clients a lot where so good people are at the end of their rope and they feel like they, there are too many things to do and not enough time in the day. And that's, that's really not true.
We have to restructure our day and use our time wisely because the idea is to find the margin and to build margin in your day to be able to do the things that we really, we want to be doing. So yes, I know what you're talking about. With 75 hard, you're in that challenge. You have to cross these things off the list or you don't, you don't complete the day.
I mean, and then basically you fail the challenge because it is 75 days in a row. But one thing I noticed with that is, , the weather, a lot of the times would dictate like, was I going to do my outside workout, which was usually just a walk in the morning or in the afternoon. Mm-hmm. , or if it was really cold, I was not [00:45:00] gonna go out in the morning and I would fit it in some other time.
Yeah. So I paid attention to the weather more than I ever have. Same. Um, but, and if I was doing it in the winter, I mean, I don't know that I would've made it through , but No, I would've. Um, but so sometimes I was like, okay, I have to do my walk now. So I would do other tasks that I would normally do later in the day, like right before I would do what, I would go on the walk because I didn't wanna come home to have to put, put a bunch of stuff away or.
like if I was meal prepping or something like that. It's like, okay, once I finish this, then I'm going on my walk or, so it just makes you think about the time and how you structure your day. And then I think it also, ma, like when I started that challenge, I was like, okay, I'm gonna wake up every single morning an hour and a half earlier than I [00:46:00] normally do.
I'm going to go for my walk, then I'm going to come in and do the other workout. And then as I was reading more, I was like, oh my gosh, you're supposed to have three to four hours in between the two, the 2 45 minute workouts. So my original plan was out the window. Mm-hmm. . And I'm so glad it was because waking up an hour and a half early, I wouldn't have done like
I just Oh, right. I just wouldn't have, I wouldn't have done it. So, yeah. So yeah, I, I agree with what you're saying and I think. , we are capable of so many things if we have the right mindset. Mm-hmm. . And it does come back to what we're willing to put in. And again, I keep going back to having that plan. Being intentional.
Yeah. Following a program, following whatever, if it's instructions or something to get you through so that you can have success with the goal. And it might not look like exactly what you thought. You might need [00:47:00] to do some other things first, or there might be other pieces to the puzzle to, to be successful with something that aren't necessarily.
Right on track with what you were thinking, but they will help you have success in the end. Yeah. I picture like this tree where it's like your resolutions and the main goals that you have at the forefront of your mind are like the trunk, but a tree is not a tree without all these branches and leaves.
And that's like all these other things that play into these main goals that you have and that have to be addressed. You know, you've gotta, you gotta prune the ones that are dead and you've gotta take care of the ones that are good and pick their fruit if they're fruit trees and whatnot. So the tree doesn't die.
Like you've gotta take care of the whole piece and in the order that they need to be taken care of. So this whole tree, maybe a tree wasn't the best metaphor. , sometimes I like them and sometimes they come up for real good ones, but that one [00:48:00] wasn't super on point. But you get the gist of it. . Yeah, I absolutely do.
and I, I, so I took a goal setting workshop last week or two. Two weeks ago. Oh yeah. And I was thinking it was going to be like, for like business goals and focus like that. I think that was what I thought going into it. And w I went, it was a couple hours long. I went through the whole thing. And one of the activities that we did is along the lines of creating a vision board with the things for your goals.
That, or for, it could just be one goal, but we created in Canva or you could do Photoshop or whatever. Just, uh, like a collage of pictures that represent different things for your goals. And you could print it out, you could put it up someplace. You could have it as the screensaver on your phone. And one of the things that was suggested is put it as the background on your computer.
Uh, I spend a lot of time [00:49:00] in front of my computer screen with what I do. So I have this now as my background with these different pictures that remind me of my goals. And my goals don't necessarily start on January 1st. I'm already doing the practices to do them. They're personal, business, family, financial, like health and wellness.
They're all over the board. But just having that up there is like this, these little reminders where I see these pictures multiple times a day and it reminds me like, what am I working towards? And then it makes me ask myself the question like, is doing this helping me move towards those goals? Like, okay, is eating the snack helping me move towards this goal like health goal or.
You know, is spending my time all of a sudden watching Instagram stories, helping me with [00:50:00] a, a business goal with finishing this business task. And I can say yes and keep going. Or just by having those pictures there, it can ki I can have the chance to reroute what I'm doing if it's not aligned with getting me to those goals.
Yeah. Yeah. And it all comes back to having that like overarching, what am I working towards and what is that goal that I want to make happen? And it's great if it's a goal that you worked on before and you're like, I failed at that. Am I gonna fail again? No, because you just listened to this whole episode, , and you know, now that there's like other factors that play into it, there's gonna be other goals and areas of your life you need to address.
And once you do that and you put them in the right order and you take things on one at a time, and you just stay the course with that process, even though it's not the way that everyone else does it. That's because everyone else is failing at their resolutions by February. And so when you do it [00:51:00] the way that no one else is doing it, you're going to, oh my gosh, another cliche achieve things that other people don't achieve.
But like, oh, it's cliche cuz it's real . You gotta swim upstream. You gotta swim upstream. And that's really the process to swim up upstream. And it sounds simple and it's like, well yeah, that's logical, but just cuz it's logical doesn't mean everyone does it unfortunately. For sure. And yeah, I'm not, I shouldn't, I shouldn't laugh because again, so many people follow this route.
But I think the reason I laugh is because it does sound so simple. Um, but there is a disconnect and I really think that disconnect can be caused by outside influences. The people around us, we can't always control that. . And so give yourself grace in that. Like, if you've failed before, okay, move on. Like it's a new day.
It truly is like a fresh start. Great. Take advantage of it. Truly take advantage of it, but just approach it differently this time. Like take a different approach. And I [00:52:00] know, um, when we're done chatting, I'll share a little bit about how I can help with that. And I know you'll share a little bit about how you can help with that in our specific areas that we serve people.
Um, but before, before we end this awesome conversation, what are your, like the main takeaways you want the listeners to have? Well, I think to wrap it up, I would say in your goal setting, think long term you. This isn't going to happen in a couple weeks, right? There's many components to, even if you think it's a very simple goal, think long-term because you're changing your habits and those you are replacing what you're currently doing with better habits, healthy habits to improve your lifestyle and just make these overall improvements that are going to have that kind of like waterfall thing happening where y [00:53:00] you are focused in on one thing, but it's going to have a positive effect on many areas of your life, whether it's taking control over your diet or organizing your home, removing the clutter from your home, getting a better fitness routine, going.
These things are in improving your overall health and wellness and mindset and mental health, and. You're going to have benefits in areas that you weren't even focused on when you chose that this goal would be your focus for the next few months. Yeah, so true. So true. And I would just say to wrap it up to remember that if you choose to take this approach and whether it's you choose to invest in yourself with one of us or with someone else or anything, and do decide to take a different approach [00:54:00] and you know, do your goals, attack your goals in the way that not everyone else is.
Like maybe you don't step foot into a gym January 1st and you decide to start first dealing with like the routine in your home and actually getting into one, and then you decide to start tackling your nutrition and you know, a few, a month or two later. You feel like you got your nutrition down pat and then you decide to move on to like organizing some spaces in your home and then you decide to move on to working out.
Literally say it's like April by the time you step foot in a gym. What's crazy is at that point in the year, it's only gonna be be the people that have made it consistent that decided that the people that will be in the gym when you decide to step foot in there because you took it one tablet at a time, those are gonna be the people that said, I'm just gonna start working out on January 1st.
I'm not gonna focus on my nutrition, I'm not gonna focus on anything else. I'm just gonna get to the gym every single day or however [00:55:00] many days a week. They're gonna be the people that are still showing up in. , when you decide to start that habit, you're not gonna go, I'm gonna fix these four things in my life on January 1st.
You're not gonna do that because those are the people that fall off. And I just wanna encourage the woman listening that if you choose to take that approach, the one that's getting you in the gym in April, instead of when everyone else starts in January, or has you, you know, not cleaning up your nutrition till February, cause you gotta get your home in order first, whatever it is, if you're taking that approach, I just wanna encourage the moms listening because it is really hard.
Like talk about fomo, talk about frustration, talk about, oh, they're doing all this, or these all, there's all these offers or there's, you know, just so much out there that I could do. And that's true. You could do them all, but will they last? So if that means you need to unplug from social media for a few months, Do it so you [00:56:00] can stay the course.
If that means you need to really lean into one person's process or process that they teach so you can stay the course, instead of jumping around and trying a thousand different things, then do that. If that means that you really need to just hunker down, focus on your family, focus on your home, before you even focus on your health, do that because like Warren said, it's going to impact your health when you can focus on one thing at a time and really build those habits.
So I just wanna encourage you that, yes, well, it's not the world's way of doing things, um, which makes it really hard. You are doing it the right way, and I'm judicious about saying there's a right way and there's a wrong way, but. . I mean the statistics show there's a wrong way to approach your goals and your resolutions.
And so when you can take it one thing at a time and actually make them habits, because habits are things we do ritualistically without mental effort. Like it's not a habit until you get to that point. So when you can actually build [00:57:00] habits for real instead of just feeling like you're doing it cuz you're being consistent and white knuckle in it for a month and then falling off, that's not a habit.
When you're actually building habits, you'll be making real change. And you know that feeling of fomo, oh my gosh, everyone's doing everything and I'm not right now, so I'm falling behind. All those feelings will fade by the summer or the fall because you will have all those habits in place. It just takes time to build them all up.
So just say the course, do it There is a right way. Yes. And you can do it if you are. Thinking about a goal that you want to set or a change that you want to make for this upcoming year for yourself, for your family, then you have some habits already around that, or the lack of that, and those are habits that are not serving you.
They're most, I like to call them unhealthy habits [00:58:00] because they're, they're not in your best interest, but they are a habit because it is what you are currently doing. Mm-hmm. , and you have to replace those and it takes time. It takes a minimum of 30 days to stick to those habits and to build, to make these new things that you're implementing become a healthy habit that you are now replacing that bad habit with.
Yeah, exactly. So give it time. Stay the course. All the cliches. I'm gonna keep saying 'em cuz they're true. Right, right. You've had some good ones today. full of 'em. . Yes. So stick with it. Whatever your goals are, we want to help you have success with those. So will you tell us how people can find you and what programs and things that you are running and have coming up into the next couple months?
Yeah, so, um, you can listen in on the Tough of Mom podcast if you're over listening from [00:59:00] Warren's podcast right now and. There is where I share about, uh, consist discipline, consistency and mindset for moms specifically around your health. Um, so you can lose weight. So you can actually live a healthy lifestyle that you imagine for your life.
Like that's possible, but it takes discipline, consistency, and mindset. So that's what we address on the Tough of Mom podcasts. And on December 29th, um, cart the Doors will open for starting point school, which is simply a place where you learn exactly which one habit to start with, how to follow through on it.
You get accountability for myself and the other moms going through it with you. And you'll also learn how to add onto that. Like when is the right time to add in a new habit? When do you know like, which habit should be next? Is it too soon? Is it too late? Like when do you add in that next habit? Which one should it be?
And you get accountability with us for three months minimum. And. [01:00:00] Truly make change in your journey. Um, it's for moms that are stepping back into their health journey, whether you're a couple weeks postpartum or a couple years postpartum, whenever it is that you're wanting to do it the right way and build habits in a way that's sustainable and actually makes real change and doesn't feel overwhelming, cuz motherhood's overwhelming enough.
Um, that's what you learn in starting Point School. So all the information@startingpointschool.co if they want to hear anymore about that, my listeners know about it for sure. So if you got to hear that on the Tough of Mom podcast and you're not on the wait list, you gotta get your booty on the wait list.
So that's all. What about you Lauren? ? Awesome. Are you gonna help all the mamas in the new year? Uh, well they can find me at intentional edit on almost all social media platforms. I'm not super active on social, but I will. If you send me a message and@intentionaledit.com, my podcast is also the Intentional Edit podcast.
And if you are wanting to get your [01:01:00] home organized, get rid of that clutter. They can join me in the Simplified Home Masterclass, which is ongoing. It's a self-paced program that walks you through exactly how to declutter just like a professional organizer would, and gives you the confidence that the things that you are getting rid of are things that you truly don't need, and the things that you are keeping are adding value to your home and your life.
So it's a decluttering program. And then, How to organize things properly so it makes sense for your family. It goes through every single room in your house, and not only do we focus on decluttering and organizing, but the most important part in all of that is coming up with the systems that work for your family to simplify everything and keep things organized for the long term so you don't keep repeating this cycle where you have to do these things over and over again.
So I would love to have you join us in the Simplified Home Masterclass and you [01:02:00] can get all that information@intentionaledit.com. Yeah, I feel like for both of the demographics that we serve, it's, Hey, we're on this wagon, and most people fall off at some point and they really struggle to get back on the wagon
So this is the process that you learn and can implement in your life. so you fall off the wagon cuz it will happen. Right? We talked about imperfection, like we are imperfect, but you just kinda like hop back on the wagon, it's like, oh no big deal. Just like bumped off real quick and I'm back on . Might get jostled around here and there, but I don't even fall off sometimes.
So, you know, that's what we teach and can help you with in both areas. Um, so I'm excited for all the change that moms will see in the new year through these things. Um, and just through their own efforts, through their own discipline and mindset work. Cuz it's really not easy, but like you can be part of the [01:03:00] 36% that's still going, like, keep chugging along and we are cheering for you guys.
That's right. Absolutely. Let us help you replace your unhealthy habits. Yes. With habits that will serve you for the long term and have you achieving your goals. Amen. All right. It was great talking to you today. Yes, you too. Lauren , before you go, thank you for spending this time with me on the Tough Love Mom podcast.
If this episode encouraged you in any way, the number one way you can thank me is to leave a review letting me know how this show has impacted you. Then send this episode to another mom friend, or take a screenshot, post it on social media, and tag me so I can personally thank you for helping me on this journey to impact thousands of moms.
I'm so grateful to be on this journey with you, sister. Until next time, get after it.
